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1. The supermarkets will have to step up their ecommerce game after Amazon/Morrisons deal

More details emerged this week of Amazon’s plans to sell groceries online as it announced a new partnership with Morrisons. It will mean that Amazon Prime Now and Amazon Pantry customers will get the opportunity to buy ambient, fresh and frozen products from Morrisons.

Amazon is yet to release a full list of products that will be available but items such as orange juice, soup and spaghetti are likely to be part of the range. Customers will be able to buy Morrisons products as part of a wider Amazon shop.

The news comes after Amazon announced in September last year that it would be expanding its online grocery offering with a trial in London and Birmingham. However it previously only offered frozen and chilled products, rather than fresh.

The Amazon and Morrisons tie-up will definitely scare rivals Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s, according to Bryan Roberts, global insights director at TCC Global. He told Marketing Week: “Aldi and Lidl are more problematic in the short term for the grocers but if Amazon does pull together a credible growth programme in the UK this could be seen as a game changer.”

2. Bodyform and P&G hit out against female taboos with new emoji campaigns

Both Bodyform and Proctor & Gamble, the latter via its Always’ #LikeAGirl statement, launched new socially-conscious emoji campaigns this week.

The campaign was developed following insight that almost half (45%) of UK women and girls find it difficult to talk about their periods and it features emojis that spread awareness of conditions such as bloating that impact women as a result of their periods.

Key to Lego’s growth has been its focus on sustainability and charitable drives, according to CEO Vig Knudstorp. The company has invested £4m in a study in partnership with Cambridge University to explore the benefits of playful learning, which Knudstorp said shows it is “taking full responsibility for the world and its development”.

Lego also says that more than 90% of waste from its production sites was recycled in 2015. The company improved its energy efficiency by 5%, having decreased its energy usage by 20% over the last five years.

Knudstorp explained: “With the massive growth the company is experiencing we can offset this by using renewable energy. We are producing more products, but using less energy.

The pan-European campaign, which launches in the UK, Germany, France and Switzerland on 7 March and targets high net worth individuals, will run on TV for four weeks using Sky AdSmart. It will be supported by a partnership with Top Gear in the UK and Germany and by a digital campaign.

Jon Pollock, MD Europe at McLaren, told Marketing Week the car marque is aiming to win customers from the likes of Audi and Porsche. “We want to highlight that journey of the car being built and then the journey [customers] can take with the car,” he explained.

“There is also a subtext to the ad, where we offer consumers a new product and choice in that segment of the market, which has been traditionally dominated by Audi and Porsche.”

5. P&G overtakes Unilever to top list of most effective global advertisers

“P&G’s strong performance in the current Warc 100 reflects the company’s continuing ability to develop powerful advertising that gets people talking. While Unilever remains a very effective advertiser, the latest results raise questions about the potential impact of cost cuts on the development of breakthrough marketing ideas,” says the report.

Both Ikea and Heineken had “breakthrough years”, appearing in the top 10 brands segment of the Warc 100 for the first time. Warc credited their global scale and consistent success across international markets, as well as the broad brand portfolio at Heineken, for the strong performance.

India’s Tata Group was one of the biggest risers, meanwhile, with its ranking going from 32nd in 2014 to ninth in the latest list. Its most successful campaign – Jaguar’s ‘British Villains’ from agency Spark44 – came 14th and showed that achieving outside a company’s home market is key to success.

P&G has unveiled the next iteration of its #LikeAGirl campaign, blasting emojis for being “stereotypical” and “limiting”, and encouraging girls to share the type of female emojis they would like to see.

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